When he awoke Jack was aware that the alarm clock wasn't ringing in his ears. He rolled over heavily in the bed and glanced at the clock radio sat on his bedside table next to his cell, it was gone ten o'clock.
"Damn it Kim," he muttered, knowing she had turned the alarm clock off again.
He climbed out of bed and sauntered into the kitchen, frowning when he saw her sat at the table chewing on a piece of toast.
"Its awake," she laughed, "I wondered when you were going to get up."
"I may have the day off work Kimberly but that doesn't mean I didn't have other things planned you know."
She smiled sheepishly knowing she was in trouble but still believing she had done the right thing. "Oh I'm sorry I never realised." She gave him the 'innocent' face and he turned away and started to rummage through the fridge for something to eat. "Anyway aren't you at college today?"
"Yeah but not until one, I got the morning off."
He nodded as he closed the fridge again no longer hungry. Kim shook her head playfully before getting up and filling the toaster with bread while throwing him a look which warned him not to argue.
"I spoke to Kate this morning," she started as she grabbed the jam from the cupboard.
"Yeah." he asked sceptically.
"Uh huh, she called earlier but you were out like the dead."
"I didn't hear the phone ring," he admitted, smiling at the grin on his daughters face.
"Well I was more than civil to her dad, she was very nice and actually apologised to me."
"She did what?" He asked, slightly angry that Kim had made the woman feel the need to apologise.
"Dad not like that. She said she was glad I was here to look after you and that she was sorry she made me feel uncomfortable… I was nice and told her it was fine and we had a very brief, almost friendly conversation."
Jack looked at her curiously as he told himself silently he had to call Kate to apologise for his daughters attitude and behaviour. "So let me get this straight, you decide you like her now we are over, but you wouldn't give her the time of day while we were together? Your timings just perfect sweetheart," he added sarcastically as she brought the breakfast over to him.
After getting dressed Jack phoned Kate. She was at work so the conversation was quick but he felt much better afterwards. She laughed as he apologised for Kim but she told him not to worry and that she would expect nothing less from an overprotective daughter. They agreed to speak again soon before hanging up. That done he went to his office and turned his laptop on so he could do some more research for his current investigation of the terrorist uprising TEIN - the acronym stood for the phrase 'the end is now.'
The computer loaded and he opened up his folders covertly marked I for investigations. Smart, he thought grinning at his own wondering thoughts. After entering the security passwords he decided to look at a few other things before heading into the newly created document on TEIN. It was his day off anyway, he could do all the research he wanted at CTU tomorrow.
He pulled opened the file on the Coral Snake organisation and was pleased to re-read his notes about the departments progress in shutting them down. After Wallace's death and Stanton's second recorded confession they were brought down. It had caused a frenzy in the media and Jack was glad that the government allowed it to be reported on. He closed the file and moved onto another marked 1978.
He looked away from the computer as it loaded and caught a glance at the newly framed photograph which sat on his desk next to the one of himself with Kim and Terri. The new one was of his sister and niece smiling happily with there arms around Kim. Kim had framed it and placed it here, something he was grateful for, when he was working it was nice to be reminded of what he was fighting for, the lives of innocent people like his family. He didn't let the thoughts of his failure of saving Terri come into his mind, he had learnt to successfully block them out unless he wanted to depress himself. Today, he felt good and he wouldn't let him drag himself down.
He clicked open the file and read about the bombing which had taken place 25 years ago, the day before fathers day. A shopping centre in LA had been the target of a sneak attack, 3 nail bombs had exploded killing over two hundred people and injuring another three hundred or so. Jack had been 10 years old at the time, Carol was 14. There mother Suzan had been in the centre, buying a gift for her now deceased father. Shad been only a hundred yards away from the biggest explosion and was killed almost instantly.
There father Bill had told Jack she had died in a car accident. Carol was old enough to know the truth but agreed to try and make the death as painless as possible for her little brother. They were still both devastated. He had never made the connections of his mothers death and the massacre until he was older, a lot older. He had already began working for CTU before he had found the truth out by chance. No wonder Carol and Bill had been so worried over his decision to join the war against terrorisms, he hadn't known he too was another victim of the war.
He hadn't been angry at his father or sister though, he understood exactly why they had shielded him from the details of her gruesome death. It had limited the damage somewhat, like any child he had suffered greatly, knowing how she really died would have only made it worse. That was part of the reason why he struggled to forgive himself for putting Kimberly through the same pain he experienced as a child. She may have been older but that made no difference, and she had been only too aware of the details of how Terri was murdered. The parallels between the death of her mother and grandmother were never spoken about, it was sacred ground neither of them wanted to cross, no matter how haunting the silence could be.
He quickly scanned through the document, feeling the satisfaction he always experienced as he read about the culprits capture. Three men had been arrested and deported back to there country where they were given the death penalty. The other two culprits and the 'mastermind' who had organised the attack were killed while trying to escape. He read the paragraph again before shutting the page down. He always felt better after reading it. Although their deaths didn't limit there pain or destruction caused, justice had prevailed.